


Fall Seven Times

by dicks



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 04:05:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dicks/pseuds/dicks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karina knows better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall Seven Times

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta but meh, whatever.

Karina’s first love was singing. She was eight, practicing for the school choir when she realized how much she enjoyed it. Now Karina is sixteen, with big dreams and big heart, too mature for her age but that’s not enough.  
  
Karina knows what she wants. She’s no longer bothers denying it.  
  
But then, there’s always ‘but’. Everyone knows that.  
  
“Men are ridiculously stupid”, Nathan declares, out of the blue. He is sitting next to Karina on the gym bench and not sweating because he doesn’t sweat, he _glows_.   
  
Says _Nathan_.  
  
The very same Nathan who told her once, ‘It’s all about the thighs, girl, it’s all about the thighs. Find a man with a good pair and you’ll have a bright, promising future.’   
  
Karina has so much to say about that statement, like ‘aren’t you one of them or have you forgotten?’ But being in love is apparently exhausting. She takes a gulp of water from her bottle, and then wipes the sweat off of her hairline. Her eyes wander to the other side of the gym, where the rest of the men gather.  
  
Nathan doesn’t need her input on what she thinks of Kotetsu’s thighs, really.  
  
Then, Nathan looks at her straight in the eyes, “Oh sweetheart, you’re still young. Whatever you’re feeling now, you’ll grow out of it, you’ll see.”   
  
Karina would’ve believed him but it’s hard to take him seriously when he wears too much of purple. She says simply, “You don’t understand.”  
  
“Of course I don’t understand,” Nathan says, fingering one of his periwinkle-star earrings, “I don’t fall for people. People fell for me all the _damn_ time. It gets boring after a while.”   
  
At the corner, the men are laughing.  
  
-  
  
Three hours later, men are still stupid.  
  
Perhaps even stupider, notably when Kotetsu heedlessly jumps in front of Karina and take the blows for her. He would’ve had more than few cracks on the ribs if it weren’t for the suit.  
  
Later, she pulls him to the side, yelling, “Why did you do that for? What are you, an idiot?”  
  
Even Barnaby agrees with her.   
  
“Ahhh sorry,” Kotetsu says, clearly amused, and grinning, and Karina’s heart rate skyrocket to 116 beats per minute and it is not from the possibility of dying.  
  
-  
  
She has no basis for this.   
  
Perhaps from the body language, and the way Barnaby acts around Kotetsu of late, it seems different somehow; more smiles, less scowls and too much of eye contact that it’s unsettling. And there are touches, more frequent than necessary and once she caught him poker-faced, sliding his fingers at the back of Kotetsu’s arm. It took her three days to stop _hurting_.   
  
And another five more days after she heard them talking about sleeping over.  
  
Karina has long established with the fact that she _is_ in love with Kotetsu Kaburagi, the guy who is probably more than twice of her age, and it’s a tragedy to know that nothing would ever come out of it except for heartbreak.   
  
But _knowing_ doesn’t make it less painful than it is.  
  
-  
  
Being alone with Kotetsu is awkward. Being in love makes the sensible part of her brain cease to function properly. And being all of _that_ , she doesn’t even know how to be casual around him anymore.  
  
Karina isn’t good at compartmentalize.  
  
“Lift your left leg a little higher,” she shouts over the music. “One, two, three, four, and turn— repeat.”  
  
She turns around to Kotetsu who is half-sprawling on the floor. She pokes him around the ribs with tip of her shoe, “What are you doing, old man?”  
  
“I’m tired, and you’re killing me. You’re enjoying this aren’t you,” Kotetsu says, voice muffles against the hardwood floor. “Let’s play dead for a while, eh?”  
  
She pokes him again with her shoe, just because. Kotetsu rolls around, groaning dramatically, pretends like he is hurting.  
  
“Ha hah hilarious,” she comments flatly when Kotetsu stops moving.  
  
Karina is seventeen. She likes pretty, shiny things. She is so beautiful, it’s undeniable and she loves having new things; like the new lipstick shade she just bought, like the brand-new lilac skirt that makes her legs look slightly longer than they really are, like the taste of fresh strawberries bursting on her taste bud. She is seventeen, she is curious and likes to experiment with things, elements, feelings, and it is completely natural for the girls at her age.   
  
Karina feels a lot of things. And this is the strongest feeling she has right now; the compulsion sweeps over her so suddenly, it almost physically knocking her off to her feet. She is so much right now, so very much wanting to touch, that it actually hurts.  
  
But when she realizes this, she tells herself that this isn’t the right time for self-loathing. Karina wants to touch Kotetsu.  
  
When Kotetsu accidentally sits on her bag later, she smacks him on the arm. Three times.  
  
And gives him a small push on his back when he is walking too slowly.  
  
Her pulse rate increases to 124 beats per minute. Alone, she counts, “One, two, three, four— and one, two, three, four—”  
  
-  
  
She lies on her bed that night with Kotetsu’s towel underneath her pillow. Sometime later, in middle of the night she takes the towel close to her chest and inhales the faint detergent scent from the fabric. She releases a series of short-breaths in the dark.  
  
 _Oh_.  
  
This is the transition from wanting to touch, to wanting to be touched. Heat spread from her cheeks to the rest of her body like flames, like hydrocarbons and oxygen combined, about to combust from her chest. Maybe love _is_ chemical reactions after all.  
  
-  
  
If being alone with Kotetsu was awkward, being with alone with Barnaby is even more. It would be a lot easier to hate him back then when he was robotic, vengeful, and a complete condescending _asshole_. But Barnaby isn’t the same person as he was before.   
  
Before _Kotetsu_.  
  
The thing is, neither does Karina. Talk about pot calling the kettle black.  
  
Instinct makes her wanting to say ‘hands off he’s mine’, or ‘I saw him first’ but hair-pulling with Barnaby doesn’t seem like a good idea, not when she has small chance of winning. At least, not for now. Maybe one day when she’s old enough—  
  
Karina isn’t going to apologize for feeling the way she feels. Nevertheless, there’s guilt somewhere she can’t see. And from the way Barnaby is looking at her, she knows that Nathan isn’t the only one who noticed. Maybe Karina isn’t good at pretending either.  
  
“Does he—” she asks while fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt. “Does he know too?” because she _needs_ to know.  
  
“No.” Barnaby replies. “I don’t think so. Maybe you—”  
  
“Good,” she mumbles. “Okay.”   
  
She flees from the common room before Barnaby could say anything else.   
  
-  
  
Wild Tiger’s ranking escalates from fourth place to third in short few months. They all celebrate it together on the day Karina turns eighteen.  
  
She’s wearing one shoulder, party dress with floral trim in baby blue, which she generously allowed Nathan to choose for her. She looks, according to Nathan, fabulous, spectacular, and good enough to devour. The blue brings out the color of her eyes.   
  
Been there, done that. Karina is used to being under the spotlight. She is used to being idolized. She doesn’t want to get used to Kotetsu acting like her surrogate father, really. Sometimes she feels like his smile is carefully designed just to _hurt_.  
  
“Hey, hey, hey, happy birthday Karina.” Kotetsu says afterwards. He embraces her in an unpredictable hug, and then he laughs against her hair, sounding suspiciously drunk. “You don’t look happy. Why? Don’t like getting older?”  
  
Not even close. But Karina says nothing, doesn’t allow herself to blush and quietly returns the hug. Her left cheekbone is pressing against his chest; she resists the strong urge just to close her eyes. She will remember this feeling when the night comes.  
  
Somewhere in the background Nathan is singing Dancing Queen and Keith’s cheering just as loud along with him. And when Kotetsu finally lets her go, Karina’s heart pounds so furiously in her ears. She wants to fold herself into half and melts into the floor.   
  
Karina wants. She knows better but she still _wants_. Her eyes fall on his lips.  
  
“By the way, I saw the way you were watching when I was talking to Bunny earlier,” Kotetsu says, this time sans the laughter. “Hnn look, I know okay. I know.”  
  
Her heart skips couple of beats.   
  
She has expected this, but she isn’t prepared for it, not this soon. By ‘it’ meaning being rejected, meaning being sorry for, meaning her heart being torn into unrecognizable pieces because it’s-not-you-it’s-me-i’m-too-old-for-you—  
  
“You have a crush on Bunny don’t you?”  
  
-  
  
  
 _Fall seven times, stand up eight._


End file.
